


Learning Empathy for Dummies

by Machillusion



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gen Fic, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Pre-Slash, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 05:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16759048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Machillusion/pseuds/Machillusion
Summary: David is a new assistant at Sleepy Peak Elementary School’s mandatory after school program. There’s the usual pandemonium in dealing with kids, and then there’s Max, who’s determined to make his life a living hell. And David might dislike him for it too, if he hadn’t followed him home one day.





	Learning Empathy for Dummies

**Author's Note:**

> Super into Maxvid. I actually read a fanfiction of Camp | Camp either last year or the year before, and I liked it, but I never really pursued it. But then by pure happenstance I watched it and just had to write something about it. I mean, hey, if the staff RT is shipping characters—that skit with Max being in David’s body being in Gwen’s body was the best—then why can’t I? So I got eight stories planned so far. Super excited. But for now, I just want to test the waters and see how this goes. 
> 
> Anyways. Hope you enjoy!

It was a dreary morning on May 1st when he got the news.

David was nothing if he wasn’t rich, so he didn’t need to work. His parents were both from respectable backgrounds: his mother was a lawyer and his father an anesthesiologist, and although they talked to him just as many times as there were holidays in a year, they never forgot to send him money. Even if it was their sorry excuse for an apology for not being present for the majority of his life, he saved every last penny in his bank account. So although he didn’t need to work, he _wanted_ to work. He didn’t go to school and get a degree the price of a small mortgage to sit at home and look pretty. He applied to several places, and after two weeks, a recruiter from a rural area up north—a place called Sleepy Peaks—contacted him about his position for the job.

He was so excited that after taking two of his usual pills, he called up the recruiter to thank her for her time. She seemed a bit nervous on the phone, but he figured that it was that was because of his enthusiasm. After double checking that it was indeed the part-time job as an assistant he asked for, he began to pack his suitcase and his duffle bag. David didn’t plan on returning to the stifling city for a very long time, and if he were honest, this job was perfect for him. A long time ago, he was shipped off to a boarding school that happened to be in the middle of nowhere, and he loved it. The wildlife, the bugs, the _smell_ …he could have camped outside (and he did on occasion, much to the displeasure of his teachers and peers alike) for days. To return to a place like that was a dream come true.

After packing several months’ worth of clothing that he messily piled into the back of his beat-up old jalopy, he made several errands. David went to the nearest confectionary store and brought out an entire box of candies of all different flavors and sizes. A little candy went a long way in a child’s heart. He would know.

From the confectionary store, David went straight to the bank and made a few transactions to transfer a few hundred thousand dollars onto his debit card that he barely ever used—which took forever due to the restrictions the bank had—and then took out a few hundred dollars for spare cash. It barely made a dent on the money he stored up. On the way to the gas station, he called his ex-lover and best friend, Bonquisha.

“You’re doing _what_?”

“I’m going to be a part-timer in an elementary school! It’s in a place called Sleepy Peaks, up north. I figured I’d let you know because there might not be a lot of reception there,” David explained, balancing his cellphone with one hand and pulling into the driveway with the other. “I heard that Sleepy Peaks only has one elementary school that everyone goes to. But the pictures are so _beautiful_ in the brochures, ‘Quisha. You’d love it.”

She let out a jovial laugh. “Davey, you’d be the only one enjoying that shit. I like my ass right here in the city.” She went quiet for a moment.

“You tell your folks yet?”

“Nope,” David said cheerfully. “I don’t plan on telling them either.”

She took a deep breath, and David already knew what she was going to say. “I know it ain’t my business, but—”

“It’ll be fine, ‘Quisha. If they really wanted to know—oh, give me a second; hi, good morning, can I have it regular and full, please?—how I was doing, they’d call me. But thank you.”

She let out a short hum and didn’t bother to fight it any longer. When the two of them were dating, she had fought it much harder. With her own father buried six feet under, she knew how it felt to have regrets, to never make up with family until it was too late. And perhaps she never quite let David in enough to let him know, but she always encouraged him to go the extra mile. If they didn’t contact you, you contacted them. You told them your worries, your woes, your fears, and you asked if they could reciprocate. That’s how she managed to rebuild back up her relationship with her mother. But she also understood that David was different from her. For her, time repaired the battered bond. But for him, maybe there wasn’t a bond at all.

“Listen, I gotta go, but contact me when you get up there when you can, alright?”

He agreed, and she hung up, leaving David by himself. If he were honest, he wanted to hear her voice as he travelled to Sleepy Peaks. It was a four hour drive, and music could only entertain him so much. But he knew that she had a life. Had a job—a pretty good one too—a lover that she mentioned sparingly, a feisty mother and sister to take care of, and friends. She could survive without him.

He turned on the radio to distract himself.

By the time David made it to Sleepy Peaks, it was a little past noon, and thankfully not too dark yet. And just like he expected, Sleepy Peaks was a quaint little place. There were fields and fields of land that stretched out for miles, shaven but otherwise untouched, and small mom and pop stores littered all throughout the town. There was a gaudy strip club a little past a dark alleyway with a stern-faced bouncer, and there was a supermarket that looked to be thrice the size of any store in the city. But considering that was the only supermarket in the area, he wasn’t too surprised.

And then, of course, there were the houses with the modest porches and the creaking stairs. His make-shift house, his parents’ old house, was such a place. Before his parents moved into the city, apparently they had lived in Sleepy Peaks for a few years. His mother was one of the go-to lawyers in the town—she specialized in taxation, but that never stopped people from asking her a range of questions that she had a basic to crippling knowledge on—and she was quite fond of her neighborhood, but one proposition from her husband had her packing and off to the city. Luckily, they were affluent enough that they made their old house a vacation home, and thus still paid to keep it running. David found it ironic that he was using the house they discarded.

The house was neat, empty, and warm. There was a heater that automatically switched on the moment he entered the living room, no doubt something they paid for. There wasn’t a speck of dust in the area, not a bug in site. David placed his luggage in his parents’ room and then placed the box of candy in the fridge. He shouldn’t have been surprised that it was running, but he was.

When it was five in the afternoon, David decided to go out shopping. The supermarket was close enough that he just needed to walk there, so he did, cheerfully greeting everyone who came up to him. Apparently, new faces were rare in Sleepy Peaks, despite having a population of roughly three thousand. Everyone knew everyone, and if they didn’t know you, they’d get to know you, whether you liked it or not.

By the ending of the week, David was fully settled in and ready for his first day of afterschool. He heard that there was a mentor who supervised the children, a woman named Gwen. The kids were rowdy enough that she couldn’t handle it by herself any longer, and as Sleepy Peaks Elementary School was funded by the district, she didn’t have too hard of a time trying to attract assistance. As he made his way to the car, he brought his box of candy along with a few arts and crafts that he could use as a potential ice breaker. As he drove down to the school, his fantasies ran wild with how much fun he would have, how they would come to love after school programs just as much as he did when he was a child. His overwhelmingly positive experience with his first and last after school program was one of the other reasons why he chose to be a part-time assistant, in hopes of recreating that feeling for these kids as well.

He was taken aback by how extravagant the school looked. The elementary school, middle school, and high school each had three separate four story buildings, with a concrete pathway neatly separating each from each other. If David didn’t know better, he would have thought it to be a private school. He walked in, and the receptionist almost immediately recognized him. She immediately gave him directions to a room on the third floor, and he thanked her with a smile.

After knocking on the door once and then twice, he struggled to open the door, but one of the kids helped him.

“Thank you,” he said. “And what’s your name?”

She gave him a toothy smile, her magenta braces shining back at him.

“I’m Nerris the Cute! The best sorceress you’ll ever see!”

David tried not to laugh. “Well, Nerris the Cute, I’m David, your new mentor.”

He wasn’t sure if she was excited because he was here or because he called her by her (probable) nickname, but she gave him a wider smile. She offered to help him with his luggage, but he refused, saying how he couldn’t possibly have one of the students work. And soon as she talked to him, word came around that there was someone new in the room, and all of the eyes and heads in the room swiveled to him. Some of the children stared with interest, others with disinterest, and still others that took one glimpse at him and resumed to whatever they were doing. And then finally after a moment or two of awkward silence, a woman came bursting in the room with three kids, one of which was hanging on her arm.

“We should do that again!”

“No, you little shit, we _shouldn’t_. Do you know how much that statue costs?!”

“But my mom can pay for it. She’s a fashion designer.”

“That doesn’t—oh.” And like everyone else, three other pairs of eyes came to meet him. The young child with the brazen tan was already staring at him, and his stare was the harshest. His eyes went from the arts and crafts on one of the empty desks to the medium box of candies back to David, and David watched as he quickly pieced it together. David felt something in the back of his mind working overtime, and reflexively, he gave them all a big smile and an equally enthusiastic wave. The boy with the emerald eyes sneered at him.

“Oh, I’m sorry, where are my manners.” The young woman shrugged off the girl still hanging off of her and quickly approached David with a small smile. “I’m Gwen, the mentor of this after school program. You must be David, right?”

He took her hand, his smile set in place. “Sure am. Boy am I excited to work here. I hope I didn’t come too late?”

“Nope, you’re right on time.” She clapped her hands, and everyone focused on her. “Alright, kids. We have someone new with us today. Stop whatever you’re doing and sit in your seats. And make sure to give him your undivided attention.”

As soon as the kids scrambled to sit down, David walked into the front of the classroom. He remembered how it felt to be in their shoes, and the smile on his face widened a bit further. He was so excited to work with them, to make their experience at school one that they’d never forget. He knew how hard school could be. No matter if the child was a popular kid, a normal kid, or a social outcast, each child had his or her fair share of troubles. He wasn’t going to do anything that Gwen didn’t want, but he wanted to make sure that they looked forward to coming here. He wanted to make sure these kids forgot that their parents were too busy to pick them up from work, just like he did.

“Hey everyone! My name is David, your new mentor. I’m really excited to work with everyone today, and as a show of my appreciation, I brought a little something that everyone can share. Afterwards, if Gwen wouldn’t mind, I figured we could do some arts and crafts together.” He glanced to make sure that she was okay with it, and when she gave a small nod, he felt encouraged to keep going. “So stay in your seats, and I’ll come around and give you a little something.”

Everyone watched as he went to Gwen’s desk and picked up the box of candies, opened the lid, and came to the U-shaped tables. The majority of the kids squealed with excitement when they saw what was inside, and they were already jumping up to grab it. He tried not to laugh when he saw how eager they were, but he couldn’t help it. Their happiness was contagious, and he just _knew_ that he made the right decision.

Until he came to the kid with the emerald eyes.

That kid was surrounded by two other kids—a cute little girl with two puffs of hair who was bouncing in her seat, and a lean boy whose eyes nervously shifted from the shortest kid to David—in their own little separate corner of the table. He placed a handful of candy in front of them, and the girl immediately went to grab for some. When she took the majority, David put down another handful, this time smaller than the last. The lean boy took from that, but he saved some back for the other child. Realizing the shortest child wasn’t taking any, he asked, “You don’t like candy?”

The child’s emerald eyes snapped up to his. “I don’t want any.”

“Oh, but I brought it just for you guys in mind. I’d feel so hurt if you didn’t take at least one.” He reached into the box once more, and the kid pushed David hard, causing him to almost lose his balance, and as a result, drop the box of candies on the floor. The boy next to him looked panicked, but the shorter one was not to be deterred.

“What part of ‘I don’t want any’ do you _not_ understand? Are you stupid, or is there something wrong with your fucking brain?” He stood up and walked to the entrance, purposely stepping all over the candy that David brought for them. The other boy looked conflicted for a long moment before he mumbled a quick apology to David, and the girl thought for a moment before she picked up some of the candy and scooped it into her pocket. But the shortest boy didn’t stop there.

“If you think that giving candy to us like some sort of sexually deprived predator will somehow make us _like_ you, then you’re dead wrong. Stupid shit like that makes you creepy as fuck.” He left the room again, ignoring the calls of “Max, wait” from his other friend, and the girl gave one last curious glance at him before skipping out the room herself.

Everyone else in the room was frozen, either unsure of what to do or curious to see what David would do, with the exception of Gwen, who already stormed back out. And if David hadn’t taken his pills, he might have broken down right there. He might have stormed off in a hurry like she did, or he might have grabbed and yelled at that kid for being so rude when he was just trying to be nice, or—or did _something._ Something besides standing up with a perfect smile and laughing out loud about how off guard he was taken and about how he pushed that kid too far. The girl named Nerris looked sympathetic and she rushed over to help him pick up the candies and place them back into the box, but the majority of them were crushed to bits and pieces.

“You don’t have to,” he urged, but she refused, and soon everyone came to help clean.

“I guess one of us should have told you. Max isn’t someone that you mess with,” one of the older kids said. “Get on his bad side, and he’ll make your life hell.”

David gave another laugh, albeit a touch more nervous. “Guess it’s too late for that, huh?”

“Well, at least you haven’t met Nurf yet. He’s already been suspended four times this semester alone. I hear he’s coming back tomorrow. He’s an awful bully, so…I dunno. I guess it would be better if Gwen took care of him? She’s known him for a while, so.”

He took their words to mind, but not to heart. After all, if he made an artificial barrier for some kids just because the others were a bit more work, then he’d be no better than anyone else. He wouldn’t be the person he _wanted_ to be. “Thanks for the advice. After we’re done cleaning up here, I planned some fun activities for today. I’m sure everyone will enjoy it.”

They seemed interested enough, which David was glad for. And maybe because they pitied him, but the kids were relatively well-behaved. They were attentive to his ideas and seemed eager enough to try them. And when Gwen came back with the three children, they all quietly sat down and participated in the activities as well, even if Max kept glaring at him the entire time.

David knew it was stupid, he knew it was reckless, he knew he shouldn’t, but he decided that he would do his best to make sure everyone enjoyed their time here.

Including Max.

* * *

The first week was the most tumultuous.

It wasn’t because the drive was long—which, maybe because he was so enthralled the first day he went to Sleepy Peaks Elementary School, but the drive from his house to there was ten minutes long on a good day, and on a rainy day, well, he had to prepare a little bit earlier—and it wasn’t because of the cumbersome procedure to sign in each time he finally made it. It wasn’t because of Nurf, either. Because although Nurf was an absolute horror, he was intelligent. He bullied everyone up to and including David himself (although surprisingly enough rarely ever touched Gwen or Nerris or any of the other girls), but he was self-conscious. Almost scarily so. It never mattered who was right or wrong, who was weak or strong, as long as Nurf had the impulse, then he’d act on it. And he rarely ever apologized, either. But one word from Gwen with an especially hard pinch had him backing down.

It took two days for Nurf to realize his limits concerning David. The day that he came back to school, his first stop was to target a kid named Preston. David wasn’t sure why he always targeted him, since it wasn’t as if Preston ever went out of his way to talk to him—in fact, Preston made sure to outright avoid him—but he knew it had to stop. Despite the shifty eyes from some of the older kids, he gently suggested that threatening Preston with a plastic knife wasn’t the best way to go.

A moment later, he was nursing a terrible cut that Gwen had to bandage up.

Still, with time and patience, David was able to shift Nurf’s perspective slightly in two days. Nurf realized that he wasn’t going to get David to cower down any time soon, and he also realized that David wasn’t going to stand around and have his way. Of course, that never actually stopped him from trying, but he was much more obedient now.

It was because of Max.

Getting Max to participate with the daily activities was hard enough, but getting him to like David? It seemed like an impossibility at this rate. Maybe Nurf was tolerable enough—as laughable as that sounded—but Max bent over into a pretty little pretzel to make every day a living hell for David. Three days in, and David was already worn out. Between the pandemonium of the other students, who fed off of Max’s mischief, to the actual work-load in doing his assigned activities, to Max himself, he was ready for a much needed break. He figured that with his help, things would have gotten more manageable, not this.

And Gwen was fed up. She looked like she was ready to turn in her resignation letter at the drop of a dime, and he couldn’t blame her.

The fourth day in, and Max found a new way to push David’s buttons.

“Gwen,” he called from the storage room, “have you seen my phone?”

She hissed some explicative at one of the kids who was running around the classroom with the glue gun again before she yelled, “Nope! Did you check the attic?”

He stuck his head out.

“There’s an attic here _too_?”

“Well, no one ever goes there, so—get back here with that hole puncher Space Kid, or so help me god—I doubt it’s there, but it’s worth a try. I’ll come with you after everyone’s parents pick them up if you still can’t find it. I bet one of these little devils probably pulled another prank again.”

He tried not to feel too panicked. It wasn’t the phone itself that he cherished; with the amount of money he had, he could buy a thousand phones if he wanted to. But the phone cover…it was hand-made, his first and only present from one of the mentors at his own after school program, a man named Cameron Campbell. Cameron was absolutely terrible at what he did, but he seemed to like David enough to take out time from his very busy schedule to make it for him. (Even though it said “Made in China” on the inside.) And despite everything, it was one of his most favorite possessions from his childhood. He could always get another phone, but he could never get another cover like that one.

He resolved himself to think about it later. He had a job to do, and he wouldn’t let his own carelessness get in the way of that.

When David finally came out of the storage room, dust clinging onto his very expendable clothes and flinging from his hair, he called everyone together. Staying cooped up in the school building was nice and all, but today was a relatively warm day, a perfect day for hiking. When he told them about the plan, they were a bit disappointed, but David was not to be deterred.

“Think of all the fun you could have,” he said. “The wildlife, the nature—oh, oh, the animals! Does anyone like animals?”

“But we’ve already seen it all,” one kid retorted. “It’s only fun to you because you’re new here.”

“Oh, that’s not true! I used to live in a place similar to Sleepy Peaks a long time ago! And boy oh boy was it fun. There’s so much to—is that my _phone_?”

Gwen looked up from her newest book, her eyes scanning the crowd. She took a deep sigh when she saw who was fiddling with David’s phone. Getting up from her chair, she was about to make her way to him, but David beat her to it. He walked to the very back of the table and stood next to Max.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for that. Did you find it for me?”

Max scowled up at him before typing something on the phone again. Next to him, Neil shifted nervously. He probably knew the entire time that Max had his phone and didn’t say a word. But David couldn’t blame him. He was Max’s best friend after all. “Of course not, you dipshit. Isn’t it pretty obvious that I took it?”

“Well—”

“And your security fucking sucks. Who the hell has _1234_ as a password these days? Someone could easily wipe out your phone and take it for themselves; did you ever think of that, genius?”

Well. Since David was always by himself, he never had to worry about someone stealing his phone. Just a few years ago, he couldn’t have spoken to anyone, so he stayed at home. But regardless of that, David thought that in a very backhanded way, Max was trying to help him. Or maybe he was just trying to convince himself that Max was trying to help him. So he couldn’t really find it in himself to get irritated at how Max just blurted his personal information out in the open like that. Instead, David gave him the brightest smile he could muster, which made Max scowl even more.

“You’re right, Max. I was rather careless, wasn’t I? Then how about this. You can set my new password for me, and you can have my phone for today. Okay?”

But apparently, that wasn’t what Max wanted, and he got up and stormed off, David’s phone still in his hands. No matter how many times he called for Max to just wait, to hold on a second, to just talk to him for a moment, he completely ignored him, and Neil was left to give David another sheepish apology before scurrying after his friend. Strangely enough, Nikki stayed.

“We’re going hiking, aren’t we? I _love_ nature,” she explained, and she looked happier than he had ever seen her. When he saw how enthusiastic she was, he just knew that there was still hope that he could make everyone else just the same.

On the fifth day in, David wasn’t so sure.

But if he was anything, he was determined, and he already decided to make Max have a fun time at the after school program, regardless of the fact that Max still pulled pranks on him, stole his phone and did god knows what with it, got Nurf to bully him for a few extra knives, and got him in trouble with the director of the school. Regardless of any of that, he still wanted to make Max happy. If Nikki could find her happy place in hiking, and Neil could find his happy place in explosive, over-the-top science experiments, and Preston could find his happy place in the plays David sometimes conjured, and Dolph could find his happy place in the arts and crafts projects they did, then Max could find his happy place too.

So that day when everyone’s parents picked them up and it was only David, Gwen, and Max again, David quietly sat down at the empty table Max was sitting at. Without looking up from David’s phone, he asked, “What do you want, David?”

“I was just thinking. What do you like to do, Max?”

For a moment, Max paused. And then he continued typing on David’s phone.

“Nothing.”

“Oh, you can’t possibly mean that. Listen, you’re with two wonderful friends who each have something they like. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but I’m sure there’s _something_ out there. What is it, books? Do you like games? I think I have a game or two downloaded on my—”

“You’re so fucking annoying, has anyone ever told you that?” Max got up and shoved the phone in David’s hands. “And you’re so nosy. Who the hell cares what I like? Your job is just to watch us kids until our parents pick us up, not to entertain us like some sort of shitty street performer. Or do you honestly think that after school programs are meant to be for _us_? What, you actually thought that?” He let out a small bitter laugh. “Well, let me enlighten you David. After school programs are what parents sign their kids up for when they can’t be bothered to leave their jobs early enough to pick them up or come home at a reasonable time. So stop caring so much and just _do your damn job_.”

Max waved away the glare that Gwen sent him with a hand.

“You know I’m right, Gwen. It’s only candies-and-sunshine over here that’s delusional. I can leave as always, can’t I?”

She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it just as fast.

“…Yeah. Get outta here.”

As Max was leaving, David quickly got up and grabbed Gwen’s arm.

“But Gwen, his parents aren’t here yet. What if he gets hurt on the way home? What if his parents barely miss him and they get so concerned and they search all night for him? What if Max can’t get inside of his house because his parents aren’t home and he’s left out in the cold?”

She sighed. “This always happens, David, don’t worry about it. As a general rule of thumb, if Max’s parents don’t come at seven, then he’s free to leave. His parents both have relatively late shifts on their jobs, so they don’t come home until late. And the crime rate is pretty low in this town, so I highly doubt that someone will mug him. The police would be on them so fast it’d make your head spin.”

“But—”

“Look, I know you’re concerned, but don’t be. I’ve been taking care of these kids for about two years now; if nothing’s happened to him then, then nothing will happen now. It’s already seven-fifteen, so if you’re done packing your stuff, then you’re free to leave as well.”

Against his better judgement, David complied with her wishes, but he felt sick to his stomach. Maybe it was because he was new to this town, maybe it was because he just wasn’t used to how nonchalant everyone was with their kids, but he was worried. Even if Max was cruel to him, even if he didn’t want David to give a damn, he just couldn’t. It was probably because he saw himself in Max. He saw the little kid who, before he was shipped off to boarding school like cheap cargo, would wait for hours on end for his parents to pick him up before finally taking a ride home with a friend.

Maybe that was why, but David couldn’t do it.

He couldn’t leave Max alone like that.

If he would walk home into a cold, empty house like he did when he was younger, then he would do more to make Max’s experience at the program a better one.

He’ll make Max happy, no matter what.

* * *

But it was hard, and Max wasn’t making it any easier on him.

It felt like time was running away with him with how three months already passed by. Sadly, out of those three months, David only accomplished one out of the two goals he set for himself, and summer break was already around the corner. It was a failing grade for him, but at least it was something. Maybe Max wasn’t happy, but he had gotten used to him. So used to him, in fact, that he made it his mission to leave every chance he got. His escape plans were sophisticated and well-thought out, but just as Max got used to David, David got used to Max as well. This time, Max was planning on using the time David spent hiking to knit a dummy, put it in place of himself, and then hitch the community school bus that left in the next thirty minutes. And if weren’t for the fact that David was hypersensitive to Max, he probably would have gotten away with it.

But the moment that Max made a quiet break for it, David quickly walked after him and grabbed his arm.

“And where do you think you’re going, Max?”

Max froze.

“Just going to the bathroom.”

“In the opposite direction?”

He huffed. “In the bushes. What, you gonna watch me?”

“You know, I’ve passed by that area every day, and let me say, I don’t think I’ve seen a bush anywhere around for about a few blocks. Not after they’ve cut them all for summer clean up.” He smiled, and Max scowled. Shrugging his hand off, Max folded his arms.

“You piss me off, you know that?”

David laughed. “Yes, yes, I’m sure I do. Now come on, let’s go join the others.” And without asking, he just picked up Max and held him at his waist. Interestingly enough, he never really struggled much, although David wasn’t sure if that was because he was comfortable with David, afraid of David dropping him, or thought that it was futile to fight. Considering that it was Max, it was probably a combination of the middle and the latter. Quite often, Nikki and Neil joined Max on his escape attempts, and while those were the hardest—he couldn’t ask Gwen to take care of the other kids _and_ help him catch the three worst troublemakers in the class—he somehow managed to muster the energy to stop them all in time.

And then there was Max’s parents.

Several times this month alone, David threatened Max that he was going to tell his parents about his bad behavior. David was alright with minor mischief, but goading Nurf to beat up on Space Kid for fun to get David hurt—because he had absolute faith that David was going to step in, and he was _right_ —was definitely hitting the hard limit. Most kids would have backed off if they heard they were going to get in trouble with their parents, but not Max.

“Go ahead,” he said with a smirk. “They don’t care anyways. I’ll bet you money that if you try calling them, they won’t pick up.”

So he did, just to prove Max wrong.

…and like Max said, they didn’t pick up. Not once.

So he left a message.

“Hi, this is David from Sleepy Peaks Elementary School,” he started, ignoring the triumphant look Max gave him. “I just wanted to talk to you about your son Max, so if you have a chance, could you call me back at this number? Thank you.”

The moment he hung up, Max said, “So? How was that insightful conversation with my parents? Did my ma ask about me?”

“…they’re probably just busy. I bet you they’ll get back to me tomorrow.”

“I bet you they won’t. And you owe me, by the way. Should have really placed money down on that bet, but it’s not even a bet if you know you’ll win.” Something shifted in Max’s eyes, something quick and dark but so familiar and personal that David almost reached out to hug him. But the moment passed, and so did David’s urge, so the two of them sat there, waiting for seven to come so Max could walk home alone as always.

Gwen popped back in the room with a few bags, and Max immediately stood up.

“Welp, that’s my cue to leave. Pretty sure it’s seven at this point.” He grabbed his backpack from the desk nearby, his backpack that before now, David hadn’t noticed was worn and old, baring strands like a two dollar wig and gaping holes peeking through the bottom, and promptly left, not even giving Gwen or David the benefit of a farewell. As soon as he shut the door, David got up and helped Gwen unpack the bags.

“Is this for tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Though those little shits really don’t deserve it with all the trouble they’ve been causing. But tomorrow is the last day of the program until they come back from summer break a month from now, so I figured I’d make it worthwhile.”

He felt something warm fill his chest.

“You’re so nice, Gwen.”

“Yeah, well, my kindness sure as hell ain’t appreciated by those kids. But thanks.”

“I think they’ll love this,” David mumbled, fascinated with the plastic fire crackers.

And the pre-summer break party went well. It really did. For the first time since David worked in Sleepy Peaks, it was a relatively calm day. Everyone was fascinated with their firecrackers, especially when nightfall hit. And if David was honest, he really liked the way they looked too. But the reason why he liked it the most was because of how much they bonded over it. Everyone sat in their individual circle of friends, but everyone was close with each other. Even Space Kid, who tended to be either bullied or isolated was next to Ered and Nerris, who were next to Harrison and Dolph. The only ones who were in their own corner was Max and his friends, but Nikki was so loud that she made up for the space. Unsurprisingly, Max was the only one who didn’t have a firecracker in his hand.

It felt like déjà vu when he wandered over to Max and knelt down.

“You don’t like fire crackers either?”

“I thought I told you to mind your damn business,” Max responded, but he was looking at the trees and kicking at the ground. He looked miserable, and David’s heart went out to him.

“If there’s anything I can do—”

“David, I’m not in the mood for your sappy shit,” he interrupted. “If you’ve got nothing better to say, leave.”

And maybe it was the way that his lip thinned, how his hands clenched and unclenched, but David thought that it would be better if he listened to Max, just this once. But as he shuffled away, he thought he heard a sniffle. David took a quick glance at Max, but his face was dry and his mouth was set into a scowl.

As everyone else’s parents picked their kids up, Max was the only one left, fumbling with a firecracker someone left behind.

“…are your parents not coming again today?”

“What do you think, genius?” He put down the firecracker and grabbed David’s phone from his desk.

“…have they ever came early?”

“You’ve been working here for three months. If they haven’t come early not _once_ since you worked here, what makes you think they’re going to come now? Or what, you wanna bet again? I could use a little extra cash,” Max snidely retorted. “What the hell are these restrictions on your phone?”

“You keep typing ‘what do boobies look like,’ and I’m tired of deleting my history,” David said. “If you want money, I can give some to you without betting on something like that.”

“I’m not a fucking charity case.”

“I never said you were.”

“You don’t have to say it. Why don’t you throw money at other kids? Face it, David, your stupid cotton-candy heart feels bad because my parents are too shitty to actually give a damn.”

“That’s not…” But that _was_ it. He felt bad, and moreover, he empathized with him. He knew exactly how he felt, to have parents that were too invested in their work to even look twice at their child. Or maybe they did once upon a time. He had an older brother, but from the little he heard, it didn’t turn out too well. Instead, he just silently watched as Max played games on his phone. At the very least, he was satisfied that Max could be entertained somehow, even if it wasn’t through the activities everyone did together.

That day, Max went home a little later than usual.

His parents never did call back.

* * *

When the kids came back from break, David had a thought.

Perhaps it wasn’t accurate to say ‘a thought’ when it was on his mind at least once a day. While the kids were on break, David thought about their families. About their parents, specifically. For the most part, a lot of the kids lived in dysfunctional households. Nurf’s mother was in jail, and most of the time, his caretaker was the one who picked him up. From the looks of it, they didn’t get along too well either. And his father? He had long since disappeared from Nurf’s life. Harrison’s parents were afraid of him because of a mistake he had made when he was younger. He didn’t know all the details, but while they still loved him, they never touched him. They never gave him encouragement for anything, and it broke David’s heart. But Harrison had his friends, and he had Nerris, so it never really bothered him. There was Nikki, whose mother, despite being relatively kind, slept around with men on a regular basis. Just a week ago, he saw her with someone new. That couldn’t have been good for Nikki at all. There was Ered, who although she had pretty decent parents all things considering, they just…left her to do her own thing. They were _too_ liberal, and while that wasn’t a bad thing, it wasn’t really a good thing either.

And then there was Max.

It always came down to him, didn’t it? All of David’s worries, all of his concerns, it all circled around Max these days. Maybe from the very first day when Max selfishly stomped all over the candy David got from the class, his focus was on him. But really, he kind of had a right to be concerned. It was making six months now, and not once had he ever saw Max’s parents. (And maybe it was a good thing too, because he probably would have sat them down and told them that what they’re doing was hurting their child, and that it needed to stop, consequences be damned.) So one day, on a Friday morning, David took the bus like everyone else. Thankfully, no one noticed a thing, mainly because they didn’t know he drove in the first place. He greeted the class with a cheerful wave and smile like he always did, grinning at the groans and moans and flat out glares the kids gave him, and then he did his daily activities.

When Max left, David followed him.

And he tried not to think about how absolutely disturbing this was, to be following a _ten-year-old_ home like a stalker, or—or like something else that was even worse than a stalker. He reminded himself each time he passed a dark alley that he was doing the right thing; it was alright to check on Max like this because he knew that no one else was going to. He swallowed down the bile rising in his throat each and every time Max stopped walking for a moment and glanced behind him; he tried not to hyperventilate when he saw Max clench something in his pocket. David wasn’t sure which was worse: the fact that Max was nervous like this every time he went home, or the fact that he was subconscious that someone was following him. But finally, after thirty agonizing minutes, he made it home.

He knocked on the door.

Watched as the door opened.

Held out his hand.

Took the money that a woman—presumably his mother—thrusted into his palm.

Didn’t even flinch as the door slammed in his face.

And just like that, Max was walking again, neatly folding the bills into his pocket before he trudged along. David wondered why he didn’t just go in, but he reasoned with himself that maybe his mother sent him on an errand. In the first place, David thought it strange that his mother, if she was home, didn’t just pick up her son. He wondered about that all the way into the convenience store, where Max picked up a loaf of bread and some milk for a total of eight dollars, and wondered about that when Max wandered into a completely different home. A home that had shattered windows and a pathetically broken and rusted door. A home that had rats scurrying in the corners past David’s feet as he tried to tip-toe around them. A home that was completely void of any forms of human light or warmth.

An abandoned home.

And all at once, it came slamming down on him that _this_ was the reason why Max’s parents never picked him up. It wasn’t because their shifts were late or because they were too busy. It was because they abandoned him. They _paid_ Max to be on the streets, away from them. And he was hiding it the entire time.

He couldn’t hold back the sob that made its way up his throat.

There was no warning at all when Max suddenly froze, grabbing a flash light with one hand and revealing the Taser in his pocket with the other. But when he saw it was just David, he relaxed a fraction. That relief was short-lived when he realized _why_ David was here in the first place. Because this abandoned house was very much out of the way of anything David had ever seen in town. On foot it was probably another solid thirty minutes away.

Max stood up, his face twisted with rage. “You were _following_ me?”

“I—”

“Since when have you been following me? Half-way? The whole time?”

“Max—”

“What is it, curiosity? Pity? Or did you actually want to do something to me out here? Empty your balls? Is that it? Did you come out here for a quick fuck from a kid who _can’t say no_?”

“That’s not—”

“Then what is it? You had better give me a pretty good reason in five seconds unless you don’t want to get electrocuted.”

“I was just worried about you,” David stammered, and although Max didn’t relax in the slightest, he didn’t attack, either. Considering that David was in the wrong, he took that as a very good sign. “Your parents never came to pick you up and it’s been bothering me. And today is supposed to go down to fifteen degrees later on, and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. I swear!”

“…so it was nosiness. Why am I not surprised.” He relaxed against the bare concrete floor that was crawling with some sort of breed of ants. “Well good for you. You found out that the class’ worst troublemaker is an orphan. Now if you’re done standing there like an idiot, would you mind leaving so I can eat in peace?”

“Max, you don’t honestly expect me to leave you here, do you?”

“Well you better, because I have a weapon here and I’m ready to use it.”

“I can’t leave you here in the cold, Max. That’s not an option. I don’t mind paying for a hotel for you to stay at if you aren’t comfortable with me, but you can’t just sit here in—in this abandoned house!”

Ignoring David, Max opened up the package of fresh bread from the bakery, sinking his teeth in and chewing obnoxiously. He probably hoped that it would have irritated David, but it didn’t. He stood there and waited outside the window, his expression pleading, before Max finally became impatient. He sighed, stood up, Taser in hand, and approached the door. Fractured glass was the only thing that separated the two of them.

“Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to turn around right now and you’re going to walk on back home to where you came from. And then you’re going to fall asleep and forget this ever happened. And you’re not going to follow me again, because next time I see you at my house, I _won’t_ just sit by. Do I make myself clear?”

“…I can’t.”

“If you feel guilty, then don’t. This is normal.”

“No, it’s not.”

Max rolled his eyes to the heavens in exasperation. “So what, are you going to help all of the kids in the world who were ditched by their parents like I was? You gonna offer every one of them a warm place to sleep? New clothes? Love? Hell, let’s not even drag them into your shit-fest. Tonight’s a cold night. But I’m going to be here tomorrow night and the night after that and the night after that. You think my situation’s going to magically change because some airhead decided it’d be a good idea to let a kid stay over for _one_ night? Do us all a favor: don’t start something you can’t finish. I don’t need your pity, and I don’t need your kindness.”

He turned around and began to walk away, but David slipped his hand through the broken glass and grasped his arm. He ignored the sting and the warmth that blossomed all over his wrist.

“You’re welcome to stay for as long as you want,” he said. “So bring your stuff, and come with me.”

Max’s eyes flickered from the wound to David’s imploring stare. Finally he sighed. He shrugged off David’s hand and backed away.

“Fine. Let’s see how long this lasts.”

* * *

Max still bullied David.

It has been two years since David found out that Max’s parents had essentially abandoned him and left him to fend for himself. The day after Max first slept on his couch, Max sent him the most vicious glare and threatened that he’d burn David’s house down if he ever told anyone about it. Even without the threat, David promised to keep his lips sealed, but Max couldn’t quite believe him. And how could he when so many people trampled on his trust?

But with time, Max slowly grew to trust him.

And strangely, even though he never actually needed to stay in the after school program anymore, Max still hung out with Nikki and Neil. He still stole David’s phone even though David gave him one of his own, and he still mouthed off to David and tried to escape, although his attempts were much more conspicuous than before. David had a theory that Max just wanted to get his attention.

And when it was all said and done, when seven o’clock hit and Gwen dropped all of her books right on the floor and ran out like a woman who had done lost her mind to make it on time for the newest edition of “How I Met Your Mother,” David intertwined his fingers with Max’s. And like he’s always done for the last two years, Max violently shrugged it off.

But then he slid closer to David’s side as they walked home. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is not how I wanted it to go?? I’m actually irritated right now. It not only dragged on long but it—well. At least the ending was similar to what I had planned. (Considering I chopped off a good half of my outline, it's a small victory.)
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! I’ll try to make it a shorter one-shot next time. I was really inspired by some of the writers of this fandom, truly. I don’t regret dipping into the Camp | Camp pool at all. XD


End file.
